Private Institutions vs. Public Institutions - Research Paper Example

? Private s vs. Public s Public s vs. Private s Sociology of education is the in-depth scrutiny of the manner in which public institutions and personal or individual life experiences influence education and the general outcomes. The main concern of sociology of education is thus a close study of public school setups in the modernized and industrialized society. Sociology of education deals with what may unswervingly or indirectly have an impact on education. Here, the matters that may concern education should be sociological in nature. Primarily, sociology of education helps in understanding the entire education system, finding the strengths and weaknesses. In order to do proper formulation of guidelines and planning of a viable system to perfectly suit man and society (Armstrong and Elizabeth). To this respect, therefore, sociology of education places the teacher in a better position of understanding social issues and their related problems in relation to the schooling environment thus enabling the teacher to relate morally, ethically and professionally. In other words, it gives the teacher in depth understanding of the student cultural background and socio-cultural setup, hence helping them to understand it better themselves. Education is a formal process through which society willingly passes down accumulated customs, values, skills, and knowledge from generation to generation. In light with this notion about education, there are many functions connected to its necessity hence its core basis. Some of the outlined objectives of education thus include development of value and attitudes. The basis of any society is inclined on its values whether social, cultural or political. These values act as the pillars on which the society’s stability rests upon. For this value to be existent, it calls for personal/individual orientation. Education, therefore, helps a great deal in stilling and developing the required core values in an individual for the propulsion of an upright society. In addition to values, attitude adds up as a prerequisite for the stabilized moral and developmentally oriented society. With this respect, therefore, education helps in building of an individual with the right perspectives and attitudes geared towards a positive contribution to the fostering of moral uprightness and collective societal integration. Through the inculcation of these attitudes and values, education, therefore, helps in creating a compliant person fit to propel the society forward. Generally, education through any of its institutional setups is formulated to create an environment geared towards the achievement of social integration. Individuals in school setups are drawn from different social backgrounds. In order for the school to function as a system, it calls for shedding of the self to allow for the inclusion of the “otherness”. By this, therefore, we mean that a much as one will hold unto individuality, individualism has to be suppressed if the school has to operate as a joint. The education, therefore, is designed to instill interrelation ability and foster national unity, despite the existing diversity among students in terms of class, race and gender. One of the many objectives of education is to foster a country’s national development and propagate its economic growth. In order for this to be realized, it follows that individuals ought to understand their obligation in relation to their contribution to this goal. Education enhances the achievement of this objective through two major ways: firstly, through education, on is able to know and understand the main pillars of economic development. By so doing, the system thus helps an individual to strategically, position himself or herself in carrying out this function. Secondly, education helps in shaping up people to act as tools of development. This is to say that educated people understand best about what to do, how to do it, where and when to perform the specified duties as expected of them to foster developments. Through the set structures of educational institutions, the aspect of difference is critically handled and streamlined to avert negativity. This is to mean that, in any given school setting, students will be oriented such that they will not discriminate against each other based on their class difference and diverse social setting background. The foundation of any sovereign country is dependent on the basis on the condition under which it achieved its independence or freedom. In order to uphold and defend the importance and meaningfulness of the “hard” found sovereignty, the government has the mandate of informing and encouraging its citizenry on the importance of standing up to defend their achievement. The school setup, therefore, comes in handy in ensuring that this happens by instilling patriotism in students from an early age. This happens in education by the use of symbols such as the flag, national anthem, the national emblem, loyalty pledges and other patriotic slogans. The sovereignty of the country as indicated in education thus gives every individual has the freedom to feel happy about their nation, irrespective of their race class or gender (Breen and Goldthorpe). The pride of any given country is formulated based on its diversity. This diversity comes about in terms of ethnicity, tribe, dialect, culture, and most importantly race. Most school setups are of a cosmopolitan nature; they draw people from dissimilar backgrounds. For these people to coexist, the reason to embrace the differences has to be outlined clearly in the school policy formulation process to prevent discrimination. The education system achieves through the inculcation of study subjects such as social education and ethics and international relations. In a broader spec, however, education has three functions. These include the integrative function, egalitarian function, and the developmental function. These three functions help a great deal in understanding the function of school organization from a sociological angle. The developmental function, for instance, provides a chance for each student to exploit their potentials and explores their interests hence developing into a self-actualized individual. Through this process, the students also learn greatly because of pervasive social relations existing between them and their teachers, the administration but greatly between student to student and student with their learning experience. In this respect, the social functioning of the school becomes core to the students’ life more than even the cognitive function. The integration function, conversely, helps in preparing students for adult role in future societal life. This instills in them necessary survival skills and work related virtues hence socializing them to fit in the standardized societal norms and social total. Finally, the egalitarian function presents to the students an opportunity and fair platform for them to excel. It, therefore, helps to reflect that those who will succeed in their education will be advantageously placed. Seemingly, those who come from low economic setups are provided with the necessary tools to improve their economic conditions and class. Hence, through this, education helps to mitigate inequality between the poor and the rich. Complexities and challenges within the system of education in the United States The education system in the USA like any other institutional setups has challenges that hinder its effectiveness and functionalism at large. It is these challenges that determine whether the school has the capacity of solving social problems such as poverty ratio, inequality, class and gender bias, as it is otherwise designed to do. Some of these challenges and complexities are manifested in the education system in the United States of America as follows: economic deprivation, school financial policy formulation and residential segregation, acclimatization, legitimization and stratification. Some of the differences in the educational experience, which affect students who hail from diverse family backgrounds posing multifaceted challenges. Schools in the USA are fundamentally considered authoritarian and oppressive and the basis of the role they play in the society. Schools, being an essential component of society evolve to find stability amid high inequality in terms of wealth distribution and excessive exploitation. Individuals in these institutions, therefore, actively take part in the oppression and unequal socioeconomic relations. Through the education system, these vices are often considered as normal. Through legitimization, for instance, the education system convinces learners that they will end up in the right positions in society on the basis of skills and abilities hence students, whether they achieve or fail in their pursuit of education, they become resigned to the notion, accept the situation in life and in most cases consider it appropriate. Acclimatization, conversely, encourages particular traits in terms of economic achievement at the expense of other relevant social virtues. Due to this, therefore, individuals in society tend to incline themselves more to the material gains of economic status as compared to the moral orientation and correct values. Through stratification, learners who come from different races, gender, class backgrounds and ethnicities fall victim of the hierarchical system that is manifested in the social setup. It is assumed, on sociological grounds that schools help to enhance and distribute scarce goods and available opportunities. In this respect, they, therefore help to determine how people compete and contest, control and operate learning institutions. This, in turn, will determine how school life will affect the individual’s life proceedingly. In relation to financial policy formulation, the policies drawn by the school management would either intimidate students in line with economic setups or place them at a pride high status hence giving them chance to discriminate against their fellow students on the basis of “haves” and “have nots”. This will thus lead to class differences and class animosity among students inculcating in them negative attitudes in accordance to their class status. Evaluating of students in schools is an important aspect I examining and assessing how much they have learnt and to what extent they have understood or not. It gives the teacher knowledge on what has successfully been covered and what needs more clarification. However, testing students because of their merits has a negative impact on the students, in terms of gender. For instance, normally male students perform much better in sciences than female students. This will negatively influence both genders. That is to say, the male students will feel more superior and view or perceive the female as inferior. On the other hand, the female students will feel inferior and perceive the male as better naturally. These perceptions have been inculcated in individuals’ minds they take it as normal. This impact may permanently stick this perception in the individual until even up to adulthood. Hence fighting gender discrimination becomes quite a challenge. Segregation as one of the many challenges of the education system in the USA can be viewed from a multi-angled perspective. The many angles through which segregation occurs include that of caliber, class, poverty lines, gender, and race. In a case where an education setup delivers services to students on a basis of their race, the outcome is bound to affect and influence the students’ attitude either positively or negatively in relation to the placement of his or her race status. In the USA for instance, immigrants’ children are placed lowly in school setups because of their race or “otherness.” This, therefore, will go a long way in determining the individuals’ perspective of their space in society hence affecting them negatively in their later lives. Based on class, it takes up to more than five generations for the merits and demerits of family class settings to fade out in the USA. Circumstances under which one is born, brought up, and educated persist throughout one’s lifetime hence determining what one is or shall become (Ellen) Differences between public schools and private schools In trying to understand the complexities and scrutinize the challenges in the education system, hindering social function one has to understand the difference between private and public schools and how these differences influence the core function of school organization as a promoter or inhibitor of the specified functions. A notable difference between public schools and private ones is that of the approach to discipline. In public schools for instance, children have constitutional rights, which call for thorough respect. In private schools however, rules are usually laid down and children sign against them at the time of admission. This binds them to the terms of conduct, which have to, consequently, adhere. Since there is no signing in public schools, students quickly find ways of manipulating situations and they could therefore pin down teachers over disciplinary issues. While public school rules call for certification of teachers, in private schools they don’t necessarily need government certification. In most cases teachers in private schools are qualified personnel from varied fields who are employed by the schools to add experience value to the education segment. Another one of the most common discrepancies between the two forms of school is that revolving around money. In this case, it is common knowledge that public schools do not charge for tuition; whereas, private ones do and in most cases heavily. In the contrast, public schools run by financially lauded government are underfunded and the normal operation usually influenced by politicians. Private schools, on the other hand, generate their own funds. Thus, this follows that, only financially stable household members can access private schools hence bringing about the class difference and discrimination against those below the poverty index (Breen and Goldthorpe). In terms of admissions, unlike in public schools where one gets a chance by being a local of a particular district, private schools are very selective when it comes to admission. This is because, unlike their counterparts, they do not have the obligation of accepting every applicant hence there is an intense testing and interview based procedure. In this case, candidates are picked on the basis of their scholarly achievement and not ethnicity. However, there is a similar discrepancy in relation to curriculum development, in both public and private schools. In public schools, assessment and standard procedures are dependent on state guidelines on the part of private schools they get to choose their own curriculum and assessment criteria. The freedom of choice may thus lead to a high or low standard achievement on the part of the student. In relation to special needs law requirements, public schools are obliged to educate all children and necessitate programs that meet their needs. Thus, this particular requirement ensures for the availability of public schools in every district and especially trained teachers to facilitate this program. Private schools, conversely, must not necessarily admit special needs children and trained teachers; many usually opt not to due to lack of necessary facilities. In case they admit such students, any extra resources come at an additional cost. Generally, it is easily notable that private schools operate in a closed-door manner. This condition makes many people to believe that their Academic level is better placed as compared to that of public schools, which operate by rules and regulations, formulated by politicians. In this type of setup, private schools have a chance of developing and customizing an assessment system of their own although majority choose to work with a standardized one. Generally, sociology refers to a study of any given society. This study either is specifically concerned with the social human behavior in its collective aspect i.e. economically, socially, politically, or based on their religion. On a wider speck, however, sociology involves a study of sections such as social change, stratification, bureaucracy, the community and social mobility. Sociology, therefore, mainly focuses on the establishment and determination of laws, which govern human behavior from a social perspective. If a given economic system is primarily oppressive, and the school system mirrors and propagates it, then it will be assumed that its role of making society a better place is fundamentally faulty. The education system is connected to the economic mechanism, therefore, alterations, whether positive or negative in the education system will respectively affect the economic system. In the case of US, the goals of education are significantly contradictory. In order to work towards creating a fair, equal, and just societal setting, we must do that away from the academic system by fundamentally dismantling and restructuring the economic system. In conclusion, it is correct to state that learning institutions promote social mobility, propagate achievement, and enhance economic development in any modernized society. The core relational value of education and status often provides concrete evidence on the country’s societal basis in terms of individual opportunity provisions for social development by acquiring relevant technical skills and knowhow. Contrarily, however, to some extent sociology has proven that an individual’s family setting is connected to his or her education attainment. In this case, sociology presents schools as promoters of social inequalities. The integration o the roles of social structures and personal choice determines one’s own life chances is still matter of raging a debate from a sociological perspective. This, therefore, acts as a vocal point in the study of sociology of education in relation to educational policies seeking to address social issues such as unemployment, poverty, gender inequality, and racism. References Dividing Classes: How the Middle Class Negotiates and Rationalizes School Advantage Ellen, B. 2003. New York, NY: Routledge. Keepin’ It Real: School Success Beyond Black and White. Carter & Prudence. 2005. New York, NY: Oxford University Press. College Culture and Social Inequality. Armstrong & Elizabeth. 2007. Bloomington: Indiana University. Manuscript. Explaining Educational Differentials: Towards a Rational Action Theory, Rationality and Society Breen & Goldthorpe, J. 1997. New York publishers, NY. Read More